80-year-old jailed for killing his wife
An 80-year-old man has been sentenced to four years in jail for killing his 78-yearold wife in a retirement village in Mount Maunganui.
Passing sentence in the High Court at Hamilton, Justice Francis Cooke accepted that John Alfred Salter did what he thought the pair had agreed upon, with the goal of eternal togetherness.
Police called to Metlifecare’s Bayswater retirement village on October 8 found the body of Jean Salter.
Salter plead guilty to murdering Jean, 78, in their apartment, strangling her with a neck tie he’d hidden behind a cushion.
Afterwards he went into his bathroom and tried to kill himself. When that failed, he called his sister in the UK and then police.
The documents say the suggestion that Jean go into full-time care “caused John to become stressed and concerned about being separated from his wife”.
He told police he killed Jean because he couldn’t live without her and planned to kill himself to be with her.
Salter’s lawyer, Tony Rickard-Simms, said the couple had been together for 60 years, and spent every day together. They met when they were 15 and 17 and married the next year as soon as she was legally able.
The couple came to New Zealand from the United Kingdom in 1975.
While in the retirement village, Jean slowly started to lose her faculties, Rickard-Simms said.
Salter became distressed when a retirement village staff member suggested Jean should be moved to a different facility.
Justice Cooke said Salter had acknowledged his dependence on his wife, who was vulnerable and unable to physically defend herself.
The charge of murder carries a mandatory sentence of life imprisonment, however Justice Cooke concluded it would be manifestly unjust to sentence Salter to life imprisonment, instead imposing a finite sentence.
He decided on a starting point of eight years and gave a 25% discount for a guilty plea, and a further 25% discount for other factors including Salter’s age, remorse, his lack of support and vulnerability in prison.
Crown prosecutor Anna Pollett argued this was not a mercy killing, and had selfish elements.
She said Jean only had mild Alzheimer’s for one year before her death, was not abusive or aggressive and Salter was not required to provide full and constant care.